{"id":908197,"date":"2026-05-25T13:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T18:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/25\/photo-essay-southeast-asias-overfishing-crisis-and-the-effort-to-uncover-its-roots\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T13:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T18:19:13","slug":"photo-essay-southeast-asias-overfishing-crisis-and-the-effort-to-uncover-its-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/25\/photo-essay-southeast-asias-overfishing-crisis-and-the-effort-to-uncover-its-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Photo essay: Southeast Asia’s overfishing crisis \u2014 and the effort to uncover its roots"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A photo exhibition offering a rare look into industrial fishing in Southeast Asia<\/a> \u2014 and its impact on fragile marine ecosystems \u2014 was on display at a New York gallery last month. <\/p>\n

The nine-month investigation by freelance photojournalist Nicole Tung, titled \u201cOverfishing in Southeast Asia,\u201d spans Thailand<\/a>, the Philippines<\/a> and Indonesia<\/a>. The work, produced with the support of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award, was recently displayed at the Bronx Documentary Center, a nonprofit gallery and educational space. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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More than a dozen images capture Filipino fishermen at sea, threatened species including sharks and wedgefish, and hundreds of commercial fishing vessels docked in Indonesia\u2019s capital, Jakarta.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Overfishing<\/picture>
Filipino fishermen returning from about a month at sea unloaded catches of yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna and blue marlin last May at the General Santos fish port, which is known as the Philippines\u2019 tuna capital. <\/span>Nicole Tung for Fondation Carmignac<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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While the United States enforces strict laws governing seafood imports tied to forced labor, Tung said more oversight is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuyers don\u2019t always know where it\u2019s coming from,\u201d she said in an interview on \u201cNBC News Daily.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/picture><\/div>\n

She added that women in the industry face growing uncertainty, often working on docks while their husbands are employed on commercial fishing vessels. <\/p>\n

If their husbands go missing, \u201cthere\u2019s usually no legal recourse for them,\u201d Tung said. \u201cThat affects their families and their livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to the Bronx Documentary Center, the photographs trace \u201cthe journey from local ports to global markets,\u201d exposing the fragility \u2014 and human cost \u2014 behind seafood supply chains that reach consumers worldwide. <\/p>\n

Experts say overfishing in Southeast Asia requires closer monitoring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first important point is monitoring and understanding stock status,\u201d said Matsuishi Takashi Fritz, a professor in the Faculty of Fisheries Sciences at Hokkaido University in Japan, who added that combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is also critical. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Overfishing<\/picture>
Various species of sharks, some of which are endangered, hauled on shore at dawn by commercial fishermen at the Tanjung Luar port in East Lombok, Indonesia, last June. As the consumption of shark products, especially shark fin, comes under growing criticism, the Indonesian government has sought to restrict commercial hunting of sharks in an effort to balance the needs of fishermen with the protection of dwindling shark populations.<\/span>Nicole Tung for Fondation Carmignac<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing \u2014 known as IUU fishing \u2014 is a global problem that puts law-abiding seafood producers at a significant disadvantage. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about 80% of the world\u2019s fisheries are either fully exploited or overexploited.<\/p>\n

Tung also offered advice for consumers seeking to avoid unknowingly supporting such practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of what people can do is read labels carefully and look at what kind of certifications the seafood has,\u201d she said. \u201cIf possible, to buy locally sourced or from fish markets that source seafood locally.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Jay Ganglani
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 3, 2026, 7:02 AM EDT\u00a0\/\u00a0Updated\u00a0May 5, 2026, 7:37 AM EDT A photo exhibition offering a rare look into industrial fishing in Southeast Asia \u2014 and its impact on fragile marine ecosystems \u2014 was on display at a New York gallery last month. The nine-month investigation by freelance photojournalist Nicole Tung, titled \u201cOverfishing in Southeast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":908198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39560,4216],"tags":[17896,6015],"class_list":["post-908197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-essay","category-photo","tag-essay","tag-photo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}